Welcome Back is the third studio album by American rapper Mase. It was released on August 24, 2004, by Bad Boy Records, Fo'Reel Entertainment and Universal Records. His first album since 1999's Double Up, Welcome Back was coneceived after a five-year break spent pursuing religion. Mase consulted a variety of musicians to work with him on the album, including Rick Rock, Tyrice Jones, Brass 'n Blues, Park Jin-Young, Chad Hamilton, and Ryan Presson as well as James Bunton and Corron Cole from The Movement.
In June 1999, Mase released his second album, Double Up, on Bad Boy and Arista Records. The album sold 107,000 copies in its first week,[1] debuting at number 11 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) exactly one month after its release on July 15, 1999.[2] Two months before the release, Mase announced his retirement from rapping to become a Christianpastor.[3] After a five-year break spent pursuing religion, he announced in summer 2004 that he would release a new album, Welcome Back, via Fo’ Reel Entertainment and Bad Boy.[4]
Welcome Back received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 57, based on 11 reviews.[5]Tiny Mix Tapes wrote that "fortunately, Mase does us one better by dusting the magnetic dust off the microphone and showing us that he can still hang with the rest of the industry. The style hasn't changed, the lyrics haven't suffered, and the charm and charisma is still clearly evident."[12] Fiore Raymond from Entertainment Weekly concluded that "the newly redeemed MC hasn't given up preaching completely; and righteousness is most un-Welcome."[7]Billboard complimented songs such as "Welcome Back" and "Breathe, Stretch, Shake" that recalled "Mase's earlier material. Unfortunately, the rest of the album isn't nearly as catchy. Songs like "Do You Remember" and "Wasting My Time" are tolerable but don't require repeated listening."[14]
AllMusic's David Jeffries said, "Welcome Back runs out of steam toward the end, and spreading out some of the "don't sleep on this" material from the beginning would've worked wonders. It makes this the least necessary Mase album, but half the tracks point to a future that is brighter than ever."[6]Jon Caramanica, writing for Rolling Stone, found that Mase's delivery was lacking in quality after years away from the rap game and focusing on religion.[11]Kelefa Sanneh from The New York Times said that despite the production in "Breathe, Stretch, Shake" and "Do You Remember" giving him support to lace his flow on the beat, he felt Mase's religious outlook held him back when delivering "lousy similes" about the Bible and brushing women and former friends aside without a response, calling Welcome Back "a surprisingly tepid collection that might have benefited from a bit more preaching, or at least a bit more passion."[15]
Commercial performance
Welcome Back debuted and peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200 and number three on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart,[16] selling 188,000 copies in its first week of release.[17] On November 1, 2004, Welcome Back was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[18] By January 2009, Billboard reported that the album had sold 559,000 units domestically.[19]
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